In a statement released on Wednesday, the CSTO said the mission headed by Stanislav Zas, the secretary general of the Russian-led military alliance, will assess the situation along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan where heavy fighting broke out on Monday night. The mission will submit a report to the CSTO member states later this year.
The statement said that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, who chaired the video conference, briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin and the other leaders on the situation on the long border. For his part, Putin spoke during the “frank” discussion about Moscow’s efforts to stop the fighting.
The Armenian government appealed to the alliance for help just hours after the outbreak of the deadly hostilities. It is still not clear whether the government requested the CSTO’s military intervention or other, less tangible types of assistance.
According to the CSTO statement, Putin and the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan called for a peaceful solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict based on international law and agreements brokered by Moscow. They stopped short of openly siding with Armenia. Yerevan has repeatedly criticized the CSTO before for what it sees as a lack of such support.